Starting over again

Hi. I lost about 2 stone then my food and exercise discipline slipped out some back on. Lost the 2 stone by eating 5 times a day. No white rice white bread no white pasta. Exercising 3 times a week. Got to start over. I'm 46 so not far behind you. You can do it. You've done it once just got to do it again.

Hi welcome!

The reason why diets like these don't work very well for many people is that they rely on short term changes. After their diet, many people return to their previous habits and regain weight. Let's stay optimistic, it is certainly possible to get it off and keep it off and to do this I would recommend focusing on making sustainable long term lifestyle changes: building a healthy relationship with food and exercise, rather than seeing this as a short term diet:

• Drinking water and tea instead of soft drinks and fruit juices. Limit sugar and milk use in both tea and coffee.
• Cooking with fresh, recognizable foods, and avoiding those with added sugar and those that are highly processed.
• Using the 90/10 rule: most of the time healthy nutritious foods, sometimes a 'cheat' meal or snack.
• Creating healthy meals and snacks that you actually enjoy but being wary of eating too much. Include every food group except if you have to omit one for a medical reason.
• Participating in sports activities or exercise that you like. Most effective is a combination of cardio type training and strength training, but any type of exercise will help. Aim for, eventually, an hour of activity a day.
• When you've reached your target weight, slowly increase the amount of calories you're eating until you're at weight maintenance level. Then monitor your weight once a fortnight or once per month, as it is easier to correct 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of weight gain than 10 (22 lbs). It is healthy and certainly do-able at any age to lose about 1 kg (2.2 lbs) per month, but can be more if you exercise.

Best of luck.

Hi! I've hit my target and lost over 80lbs. I now got to learn how to increase my calories and maintain. Since September I've been eating 1200 calories per day six days a week and on my treat/weigh day I eat what I want. I weigh on a Friday and then have my treats which include foods I don't eat any other day. I then start over on the Saturday and keep to 1200 calories per day. I walk approx 20 per week, 12 of which I do on the weekend. The rest is made up of walking instead of using the car. The last two weeks I've started doing a eight minute ab workout twice a day (mon-thur am and pm and Friday am). Since the beginning of February I've been jogging (on the spot) doing anything between 10-60 minutes per day usually in four separate rounds. It's been hard but it's paid off. I've gone from a uk size 24 to a uk size 12 and lost approx 84 pounds. A day at a time is definitely the way to it and MFP has helped me do this for sure!!!!